This report is the first in a series about the 19th-century antisemitic libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and its dissemination, circulation, and use by antisemitic groups and individuals on white supremacist and neo-Nazi social media and in Urdu, Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic.
Introduction: About The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the fabricated record of purported secret meetings of Jewish leaders in the 19th century, describe an alleged Jewish conspiracy to dominate and control the world. The Protocols have been proven a fraud, but the book remains a fundamental text for antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories throughout the world.
The Protocols were originally published in the early 20th century in Russia as an appendix to the 1905 book The Great In The Small: The Coming Of The Anti-Christ And The Rule Of Satan On Earth, by Sergei Nilus.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, anti-Bolshevik immigrants brought the Protocols to the West, and various translations began circulating throughout Europe, the U.S., South America, and Japan. Some anti-Bolshevik circles blamed the Russian Revolution on Jewish conspirators and warned against the spread of Bolshevism in the West.[1] In the Arab world, the first translation appeared in the 1920s, and the number of Arabic versions of the Protocols has increased significantly since the late 1960s.[2]
In 1920, a short time after the Protocols were published in London, British Jewish journalist Lucien Wolf exposed the Protocols as a forgery by tracing their origin to the works of the French satirist Maurice Joly and the German antisemite Hermann Goedsche. In 1864, Joly had written Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, in which he attacked the political ambitions of the Napoleon III using the imagery of a diabolical plot in Hell. In 1868, Goedsche adapted Joly's "Dialogues" into a mythical tale of a Jewish conspiracy as part of a series of novels titled Biarritz. In a chapter called "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel," he describes a fictional secret rabbinical conference which takes place at midnight every century with the goal of make plans for the next 100 years. In 1921, the story of the forgery was published in a series of articles in the London Times by Philip Grave, the paper's correspondent in Constantinople.[3]
In the meantime, beginning in 1920 in the U.S., The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper owned by industrialist and business magnate Henry Ford, began publishing a series of articles Ford had written partly based on the Protocols. Soon after, Ford compiled the articles into a book titled The International Jew. The book was translated into at least 16 languages, and both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels praised Ford and The International Jew.[4] In 1927, however, Ford issued a public apology for having published "gross forgeries," and he called for the remaining copies of The International Jew to be burned. He also instructed that publishers stop printing the book. However, Ford's directives to foreign publishers were largely ignored.[5]
In his seminal study "Warrant for Genocide" (1966) the great British historian Norman Cohn showed that the widespread belief in the global Jewish conspiracy as described in the Protocols can be traced to early and medieval Christianity. In the 20th Century the time was evidently opportune for a wide acceptance of the Protocols, and Cohn wrote that copies of the Protocols began appearing in the hands of cabinet members and civil servants of Western countries. But more than that, Cohn showed the enormous influence that the adoption of the Protocols had on the Nazis, thus forming a solid justification for their extermination of the Jews.
White Supremacism And The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The International Jew continue to feed antisemitic ideology and conspiracy theories that revolve around the idea that Jews control the world. Today, white supremacists and antisemitic conspiracy theorists regard the Protocols as a legitimate literary source, and they dismiss evidence that it is a forgery by arguing that the Jews behave in a fashion consistent with the Protocols.
It is notable that the Protocols are not often referenced by white supremacists and neo-Nazis on the Internet. When they are mentioned, it is often in the context of events such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic.
One possible explanation is that there is newer antisemitic literature that is popular in these circles, such as Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and American neo-Nazi ideologue James Mason's 1992 book Siege.
Moreover, the conspiracy theories described in the Protocols are widely accepted among these circles. An example that illustrates the ubiquity of these conspiracies is that neo-Nazis and white supremacists online often refer to Western governments as "Zionist Occupied Governments", or "ZOGs", a reference to the idea that the Jews control global politics. Other examples include "Great Replacement" theory and theories about the "New World Order," which echo ideas described in the Protocols.[6]
Left: A post by a neo-Nazi Telegram channel claiming that children are being brainwashed with LGBTQ+ ideology with the protection of the "ZOG." Right: A post in a neo-Nazi Telegram group stating that Jews "control" battlefields in Ukraine and profit from black-market organ harvesting.
Examples Of References To The Protocols And The International Jew
In a February 2023 post, a Telegram channel[7] referred to Zionist Jews as "Khazar monsters" and "murderers" among other terms, and accused them of being behind every war in the past 200 years, as well as for being behind terrorist attacks. The post calls for its readers to read the Protocols to judge for themselves.
The post also contains three images, including a "one page summary" of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which reads:
"Goyim are mentally inferior to Jews and can't run their nations properly. For their sake and ours, we need to abolish their governments and replace them with a single government. This will take a long time and involve much bloodshed, but it's for a good cause. Here's what we'll need to do...
"Take control of the media and use it in propaganda for our plans.
"Start fights between different races, classes, and religions...
"Appoint puppet leaders who can be controlled by blackmail.
"Create entertainment distractions.
"Corrupt minds with filth and perversion.
"Take possession of all wealth, property and (especially) gold.
"Eventually the Goyim will be so angry with their governments (because we'll blame them for the resulting mess) that they'll gladly have us take over. We will then appoint a descendant of David to be king of the world, and all the remaining Goyim will bow down and sing his praises. Everyone will live in peace and obedient order under his glorious rule."
Another Telegram channel shared a post in January 2023 stating that it is the Jews who are calling the Protocols a fabrication and calling for people to decide for themselves.[8]
A Telegram channel shared a post in September 2022 that featured a link to an English audiobook version of the Protocols, as well as a video showing footage from Black Lives Matter protests, images related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and caricatures depicting Jews as evil.[9]
Screenshot from the video depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as "evil"
A channel on Gab shared a video in June 2022[10] that included an audio recording from 1999 of American neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce narrating his 1999 version of the Protocols. He said:
"Greetings, my fellow Elders of Zion. Today I am happy to report to you that our plan for the destruction of the hated Gentiles and the acquisition of their remaining wealth is practically complete. There remain only a few loose ends to tie up. And then the struggle in which we have been engaged for thousands of years against the filthy Goyim, against all the non-Jewish peoples of the world, finally will be victorious, and we will be able to devour everything they have created as Yahweh, the god of our tribe, has commanded us everywhere...
"We used the doctrine of our dear departed Elder of Zion, Karl Marx, to divide the Russian people against themselves and get the power into our own hands where it remains to this day. We butchered that Tsar and his whole family like the Gentile castle they were. With the help of the common people, we slaughtered all of the Russian aristocrats and took their wealth. And then we turned on the common people...
"America […] is the prized example of our success. Just as in England and in Russia, also in America, we have been able to put a totally corrupt, gentile politician into the position of nominal power and then to surround him with our own people who wield the real power actually running the American government. Our people are in charge of America's State Department, America's Defense Department, America's Federal Reserve System and America's Treasury Department. We have gained a nearly complete control of America's educational system..."
A video on Gab.tv containing a recording of William Luther Pierce narrating his 1999 version of the Protocols
An American attorney who wrote a book exposing the alleged "Jewish banking scam" posted a video to their Odysee account in February 2022 on this subject,[11] and another in May 2022 about the Protocols.[12] In both, they talk about the Protocols and The International Jew, dismissing the claims that they are a forgery.
They also say: "The abstract conception of liberty made it possible for [Jews] to convince the crowd that government is only the management for the owner of the country, the people, and that the steward can be changed like a pair of worn out gloves. The possibility of changing the representatives of the people has placed them at [Jews'] disposal and, as it were, has placed them in [Jews'] power as creatures of [their] purposes...
"Protocol Six says the aristocracy of the gentiles as a political force has passed away. But as owners of the land, they are harmful to us and that they are independent in their sources of livelihood. Therefore, at all costs, we must deprive them of their land. The best means to attain this is to increase the taxes and mortgage indebtedness."
*M. Davis is a Research Fellow at MEMRI.
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[1] Encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion.
[2] See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 690, A European Plot on the Arab Stage: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Arab Media, May 20, 2011.
[3] Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ldquo-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-rdquo.
[4] Encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion.
[5] Encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-key-dates.
[6] According to the "Great Replacement" theory, white Westerners of European descent are victims of a Jewish-globalist conspiracy aiming to replace them with immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. This theory was referred to Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant and Tree of Life synagogue shooter Robert Bowers. According to the "New World Order" theory, a Jewish-led global elite is orchestrating global events in order to enslave the world’s population.
[7] Account information available upon request.
[8] Account information available upon request.
[9] Account information available upon request.
[10] Account information available upon request.
[11]Account information available upon request.
[12] Account information available upon request.
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